What is the first thing that pops into your head when you hear the word dirty? Sexy Hot? Madonna? Maybe you visualize old rich men with half naked 20 something girls. What ever popped into your dirty little mind, I bet it wasn’t soap. When the guys at Method (the modern green soap company) think about dirty, they think of nothing but soap and how to make it cleaner, greener and look sexier. Yes sexier, so some of your dirty thoughts where on the right track.

It is this type of clean sexy thinking, that enabled the Method Guys (Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry) to build the 7th fastest growing company in the United States, and the fastest growing company in California. The fastest growing company in California, the home of Apple Computer, and a valley full of tech geeks popping out the latest electronic gadgets that will power our homes and do all the thinking for us, beat out by a couple of guys making soap in their bathtub? Come on, really?! Well according to Adam, that is exactly correct and they fully intend to keep growing their business at record speed, while continuing the path to make their company and their products even greener.

Thirty years after creating the careening electro punk of “No Tears,” Tuxedomoon continue to nervously obscure the boundaries of live, acoustic instrumentation with that of the steely, computer/synth variety.

We read a lot about movie stars and musicians who loudly voice their commitment to environmental and political issues – celebs like George Clooney, Edward Norton, Hayden Panettiere, to name just a few, not to mention all the performers at last year’s Live Earth event – but what about that other group of high-powered and handsomely paid celebrities?

Where are the politically-minded athletes?

A recent New York Times article suggests that “the modern athlete’s contractual servitude to corporations” via big money sponsorships might make them reluctant to lend their name to a cause that might adversely affect their endorsements.

Here’s a good one: What does yours truly have in common with Jay Leno, Will Ferrell and now Jason Bateman? Is it that we’re all hugely successful media sensations? Yeah, right. Or that we’re all (formerly) brunettes? Getting closer. The answer? We’ve all test driven the BMW 7 series hydrogen car. (That my test drive was only for a few hours as opposed to a few months is a minor detail and kind of a nuisance to this story.)

“The time has come to stop looking back at the Kyoto Protocol,” California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said in September of last year (via Reuters). “The consequences of global climate change are so pressing … it doesn’t matter who was responsible for the past. What matters is who is answerable for the future. And that means all of us.”

Apparently that means all of us with the exception of some of us. An article in the Sacramento Bee tells us that the Governator flies back and forth from his office in Sacramento to his Los Angeles mansion “nearly every night” on his private jet. The fact that the cost of these Gulfstream journeys comes from his own pocket (at the cost of around $10,000 an hour) may be comforting to us Californians on a fiscal level, but the global consequences are another matter completely.

I’m not a big fan of greenbashing, but you might be, so here’s a list compiled late last year by Green Daily of the planet’s 5 least green celebrities (with my own personal devil’s advocates added):

Not sure if these are in any particular order, but first up is R&B heartthrob Chris Brown. In a November 2007 interview with Blender Magazine, the singer was asked if he wore underwear or preferred to go commando. Brown’s response was Continue Reading / Additional Photos / Videos

In an effort to quell their fans’ insatiable craving for new material, Sigur Rós offer up the double CD collection, Hvarf-Heim, along with the companion DVD film, Heima. More like two distinct EPs, the set showcases the Icelandic masters of ethereal post-rock in a more cohesive and less amorphous context Continue Reading / Additional Photos / Videos

They sometimes call it “fidgit house.” The likes of Switch and Sinden take it to the extreme, churning out wonky A.D.D.-ridden beats for the rave-revival set. Leave it to the Frontroom label to pick up the pieces and bring the sound back down to its funky, jackin’ roots.

Deadset are a duo out of Europe that know what needs to be done to make a dancefloor house album worthy: shorter, pop-length songs, hidden Justin Timberlake samples and just enough changeups to fit into a set of weirdo house without inducing seizures. Continue Reading / Additional Photos / Videos

Regardless of your feelings on the porn industry, it’s hard not to have respect for Jenna Jameson. The former queen of the adult world is a self-created millionaire who entered the biz on her own terms and quickly rose to the top. And now that she’s retired (at 33), she’s using her star power to draw attention to causes that are important to her – namely, animal cruelty Continue Reading / Additional Photos / Videos

Shir Khan is no Girl Talk. Where Mr. Talk blender-izes pop tripe until you wish it would stop, Khan pulls out jam after jam as you wait to see what’s next. The Pitchfork-endorsed Berliner has been slogging away in relative obscurity, but hopefully that is all about to change Continue Reading / Additional Photos / Videos

I sure hope Tobey Maguire’s house has a large security gate around it. Otherwise it might become a hunting ground for leather thieves.

Word on the gossip trail is that Spider-Man’s alter ego Tobey has banned all leather from his house. And that rule applies to his guests as well, one whom has been widely quoted as saying, “I’ve seen women take off their shoes, belts, and even leave their $4,000 bags at the door.”

Of all the new jargon coming atcha from the green space – emissions trading, Chelsea tractor (UK slang for a gas guzzling SUV) and blackwater (that’s the water effluent, not the snipers) to name a few – my new favorite has got to be the “eco-poser”. Don’t play dumb. We all know one. Heck, there may be one looking back at us in the mirror.

A recent article in Alternative Consumer warns of this new breed and lists 13 ways to spot them. Their on-the-money observations include those who have “solar panels installed on the ‘weekend’ house but leave the engine running on the Range Rover when they ‘pop’ into Starbucks for that latte” as well as the people who have “a ‘Made in China’ label sticking out of their 100% jute gladiator sandals”. And then there’s the sort who writes “for an eco-friendly blog, but refuse[s] to fix that dripping faucet in their bathroom”. (I know what you’re thinking, but I called the landlord three times, asking him to take care of it.)